A Pleasant Surprise
by Nyaa-Neko
Summary: A Poochyena's thoughts on her capture, and the events leading up to and after it. One shot. Takes place during the third generation Hoenn video games.


A Pleasant Surprise

Well, I have to say. With all the hype I'd been hearing, I really didn't expect it to be that...enjoyable. Seriously! That Torchic was right...

Hm? You're confused? Ah, that's okay. You should be! You ran in mid-rant! It's always confusing when you run in mid-rant!

Feh, whatever. I suppose I should back up and start at the beginning so you can understand what I'm ranting about. It's not _that_ big a waste of my precious time.

So, first I should introduce myself. I'm a female Poochyena, though my trainer named me Krala. I still have no idea why. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that boy's head...ah, well, boys will be boys, right? (You learn this when you are the only girl on your team, trainer included.)

Anyways, I was living quite happily in my little bush-house on what my trainer calls Route 101 (I just call it home), when a man's foot steps on my house! Can you believe it? His sandals break every twig and slightly dry leaf in the entire thing! I was furious (as I should be)!

And really, what do you think any self-respecting Poochyena does to somebody like that? Well, at least, before they run away. Well, what do they do? Duh! They attack! I jumped out of my bush, snarling like I never had before. The man looked startled, although he also looked apologetic, even though I didn't pay much attention to it. He grabbed a pen and a notebook, and began scribbling notes or something while muttering some stuff I could barely hear, and not understand.

I mean come on! I was already mad enough without the guy _insulting_ me! I mean, how dare he ignore me like that!

I really had enough at that point. All natural urges to run away at the sight of somebody ten times larger than me were gone. I lunged at the man, catching him off guard. My mini-fangs were aimed at the man's shin, since that was really all I could reach, but he did this sort of weird kick-like thing that threw me up onto his shoulder. I got a large bit of his shirt in my mouth, but the only real damage I did was scaring him and knocking his large brown bag off of his shoulder. He started to run away from the bag and me on the ground, I spat out the nasty white cloth, and darted after him, barking.

"H-help me!" The man cried as I chased him around in a circle, far away from his dropped bag.

At this point, I had him cornered against a tree when a boy ran onto the route. I paid no attention to him, but the man noticed him right away.

"Hello! You over there! Please! Help!" He yelled, and the boy darted over. I snarled at him, and the boy stopped running. "In my bag! There's a Pokeball!"

The boy reached in the bag hurriedly, and his hand grabbed a red-and-white sphere. All Pokemon know what that object is-a Pokeball.

"Go! Pokemon!" He yelled, and tossed the Pokeball onto the short grass between the two of us. A small orange chick with yellow feathers on and around its head popped out with a cry of its name. "Uh, Torchic! Yeah! Go! Use scratch on that Poochyena!"

The Torchic lunged at me, and I quickly turned around to counter with a tackle. However, when the two of us collided as both of our attacks hit dead-on, the fire chick's attack took over half my strength, while my attack barely fazed him at all. I whined, trying to shake the pain away.

It didn't work.

Unfortunately for me, the boy knew I'd go down in one more hit, and probably wouldn't have the strength to dodge.

I tried baring my teeth and howling, just in case I could get one more tackle in. The howl increased my focus and drive, but in this battle, it didn't even matter.

"That's great, Torchic! Do it again! Scratch!"

I knew it was all over even before the tiny talons hit me. I wobbled a bit as I lost the ability to battle, knowing I would faint soon. The man and the boy already started to leave, since they knew I wasn't much of a threat anymore. My head spun and my vision started to fail me, although my ears worked rather well up until the very end. Although I couldn't hear what the boy was saying, only mumbles of sound, I heard the man's words perfectly.

"Whew...I was in the tall grass studying wild Pokemon when I was jumped. You saved me. Thanks a lot! Oh? Hi, you're Seth! This is not the place to chat, so come by my Pokemon Lab later, okay?"

As the man finished talking, and he and the boy started to leave, I finally lost consciousness.

I awoke at least an hour later, my natural wild healing abilities kicking in. When I felt myself grow to my full health, I stood up and shook the dirt off my black-grey fur.

When...I couldn't believe my ears...I heard that same boy and his new Torchic come towards me.

"Wow! A Poochyena!"

"(Yeah, it's the same one you beat earlier, too.)" The Torchic added, his language filled with squeaks and chirps similar to his own name.

"Whoa, really? Heh, freaky coincidence. Ah, well, Flamer, go get 'im!" The boy commanded.

"(It's a girl, Seth.)" The fire Pokemon stated, grinning at me.

"Oh. Woops. Okay, Flamer, go get _her_!" The boy, Seth, chuckled sheepishly.

I groaned, standing up. I knew that the Torchic, apparently named Flamer, would beat me again. The last time he beat me in two hits. Two hits! Man, the stakes were not good.

"(Heh, sorry about earlier.)" He said as he leapt in front of his trainer. "(And sorry about what's going to happen now.)"

"(You wanna bet, chick boy?)" I snarled, bearing my teeth.

Flamer looked a little taken aback, but as Seth commanded him to scratch me (I suppose he remembered our earlier battle), he leapt towards me anyways. "(No, really, I'm sorry. He's probably going to capture you.)" Then I felt his talons rake against my side. If anything, it hurt even more than the first time, and certainly did more damage. A lot more damage. This Torchic had gotten stronger. I shrieked, and tried to tackle him.

No luck. This time, Seth told him to dodge my attack, and dodge he did. You know, those spindly little legs are stronger than they look...

"(I will not let that stupid little boy capture me!)" I yelled, lunging at him again.

The Torchic rolled his eyes. "(Drama queen. Seriously, are all you wild Pokemon going to be the same way?)"

"Dodge again, Flamer!" Once again, my attack didn't even come close to hitting.

"(It's not that bad!)" Flamer called from a large distance away from me.

"(Yeah, right! You're just a brainwashed, interbred, domesticated, cutesy chick, so why should I believe you?)" I countered between heavy breathing.

I had heard stories about captivity. They scared me to the point that I'd had nightmares when I was a puppy. My mother spoke of a cold ball, a red ray of light that took you apart while causing you excruciating pain, and a complete lack of freedom. You had to obey your trainer's every command, just like the Torchic I was fighting.

With a glance at some sort of device, Seth grinned, and took out another Pokeball. I felt blood go cold as soon as I saw it. "That's good, Flamer. Now, Pokeball! Go!"

And he threw the ball at me. I tried to leap away, but I couldn't. I felt it collide with my right foreleg, and open up.

The moments passed like hours as a red beam of light shot out and blinded me temporarily. I felt it encircle me and squeeze me...but...

It wasn't painful. If anything, it felt nice and warm, like lying in the sun on a summer day. I closed my eyes, but it wasn't to block out the pain. I felt...kind of sleepy, or maybe...I don't really know. But, I really, really, really hate to say it (mostly because than the Torchic would be right), but I kind of liked it.

Soon enough, I was let out of my Pokeball, but I felt fully healed and rested. The boy was kneeling before me, and smiling. His white hair shone in the midday autumn sun, and his brown eyes were kind of soft and caring. He wore a red-and-black jacket, black pants, weird yellow-and-blue gloves, and even weirder red-and-black shoes.

I have never, and never will, understand humans and their need for stupid fashions.

"Hey, little female Poochyena!" He greeted as he patted me on the head (a little roughly, I might add).

"(Watch it, Seth.)"

"Wow! You know my name!"

I was surprised he could understand me. Actually, I was surprised I could understand him as well as I just did. Well, I always understood humans; it's just that Seth's words, from that day forward, were crystal clear, while other humans spoke in slightly muddy sentences. Seth later explained that it has to do with the Pokeball. I still, to this day, don't get it.

"(Hey!)" I turned to see Flamer next to me. "(Sorry 'bout that. But Seth'll train you to a higher level. I still don't understand how a level two Poochyena was able to scare the professor so badly...but Seth is a good trainer. He trained me from a level five to a level seven!)" He fluffed his feathers proudly.

I growled. "(Shut up, you level-obsessed chicky!)"

Seth laughed. "Chicky! Hey, Flamer, maybe I should have named you that instead!" Flamer glared at his-or rather, our trainer. The boy shrugged it off, and then turned to me. "Well, on the subject of names, I'm going to name you...uh...hm...Krala. Yep. You're Krala."

"(What kind of name is _that_?)" I sputtered as Flamer started to chant my name over and over. "(Shut up!)"

"It's your name," Seth stated as he stood up. "Now come on. We need to go through Oldale Town so I can get more Potions. I used my last on little Krala here."

"(SHUT UP!)" I yelled, although I darted after him rather obediently. We arrived at the sleepy little town, Flamer and I were healed at this supposed "Pokemon Center," and then after exploring a little, we spent the night there. Seth said I could sleep with him, mostly since he admitted he gets cold at night.

And even though he talks in his sleep (a lot), I snuggled up to my annoying eleven-year-old trainer's chest and fell asleep. That is, until he almost squeezed me to death around midnight. I would have bitten him under normal circumstances, but hey, he's my idiotic little trainer.

Yeah, sure, some would call it a loss of freedom, but it's not that bad. I thought of it as more of a pleasant surprise, with all that scary stuff going around about how Pokeballs destroy your very soul and all. Actually, I've gotten used to it, and have become, as I would have said, "domesticated." I still try to beat up Flamer a lot, since he annoys me. The same with Seth.

But it's really not that bad.

Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me. It belongs to Satoshi Tajiri, the Pokemon Company, Game Freak, and any other respectable owners.

**Author's Note: My first Pokemon fic is up. This is a one-shot; by the way, I don't plan on expanding it. I did this partly because I wanted to try doing something in first-person, and also because I've always "debuted" in a new category on with a one-shot. That, and there are a lot of angsty fics out there about Pokemon who get captured, and I wanted to do one in a different light. And who am I to break tradition? Anyways, please read and review, all comments (especially on how to improve) are appreciated.**


End file.
